Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-07-21

Where are the promises of your young
daysS Where are the aspirations, the de-
sires after higher life, the noble pur-
poses with which my soul was tilledY Dead
dead and buried beneath a crust of self
ishuess."
youthful follies.n answered Jenifer
"gone the way of all such early fancies.
Why do You prosecute mes Have l stolen,
or murdered, or lived uncleanlyy Have
not kept TO my work and done it thor
oughly. distasteful as 1t iss"
at is true" said tho other, "the com
mandments you have not broken; but
where are the hearts you have helped TO
bind upS How many have you helped by
your example? Rather, have you not by
daily cafelessness, by dryness OF spirit, by
! pertunctory performance of your duty,
aueuched the light that was, aye, God
! knows il was in ma? And in doing so you
have wounded many another. There are
sinners who slay the body, but you have
slain your own soul; and woe be to him
| of whom this can be said"
! Jenifer laughed in scorn.
when l was what you are, all this
would have had its terrors for me; now
am not to be frightened with false fire.
! L
me thus-an illusion of the brain, dis
turbance of the nervous system. Come
daylight, and this will be as if IL had
never been"
But the other with the sad, youthful
eyes looked at him in sorrow and said:
even in your blindness you speak the
truth, for when you were as | am, ere
the world had dimmed your sight, you
would have seen the precidice on which
you stand. Oh, brother of me, though
how degraded give up your dreams of
selfish future; turn back while yet you
may; use the wealth that has come to
you, not for yourself only, but for others;
redeem the time that is left to you, and
bring to happier second life the pro-
misses, the aspirations of your youth"
"Degone!" said Jenifer. "lf not an IL
fusion, then you are an accomplish in
some conspiracy to betray me in rash
vow. Did You ana the old man who is in
his grave plan it between you and laugh
to think how you would scare your fool
ish dupe? Away from me and do not hope
! to work your will. Ihave inherited, and l
will enjoyW
"Nay, them" said his double; "sse to
what an end your enjoyment shall bring
you. l, whom you have destroyed, am
what you were; see now what You shall
! be-"
| Then for one awful moment the parson
knew that not only he himself stood there,
with the spirit of his once pure, and
earnest-hearted youth beside him, but a
third and dreadful shspe-himself as he
should be, if no hand of grace stayed his
downward course.
! The lightning fash of awakened per-
ception showed him his own old age,
where that which he had called economy
had grown to avarice, where cailousness
had become cruelty discomfort, envy
carelessness, impiety. He saw himself
degraded, mean, despicable, bad, without
affections, without tenderness, without
hope; and as the horror of it swept over
him with resistless force, Clement Jenifer
the icy crust of years of life for self
broken at last-fell upon his face,
with the agonized cry of the apostle of
old:
"Who shall deliver me from this body
of death?"
When he came to himself ne was in the
quaint old sttting-roo in his new home.
The fire had burned low, and only dlmly
illuminated the room; but as he gazed
iHhb bllb SlONluH ~ hAbhtANO uh
Bindled log leaped into flame, and as il
leaped and hickered the scroll which he
had before remarked and failed to de-
cipher caught and threw back the light
and Mr.. Jeuifer read in letters of gold
the words:
Nor deem the irrevocable past
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last,
To something nobler we attain.
He sank on his knees and there, in con-
triton of spirit and anguish of soul,
dedicated anew to his master the years
that should be granted to him, the wealth
he had nherited-himself, BODY, soul and
spirit forevermore.
People said afterward that prosperity
had been good for Mr.. Jenifer, that had
made him softer, more compassionate
more tender. He alone knew that the
vlsior he had seen had come only just In
time to save him from that utter ruin of
soul to which he was tending, and when
he thought as many time he did, of that
! awful night he bowed his head in contrite
humility, and gave thanks for the warn
ing that had been sent to him.